*After a sold-out run at Lincoln Center, Christopher Durang’s award-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spikeplay moved to Broadway for a 17-week strictly limited engagement at the Golden Theater (252 West 45th Street, NYC). The Broadway run opened on Thursday, March 14, 2013 and once again the hysterically funny play met with resounding hilarity and enormous success resulting in its being extended twice moving its closing date to August 25, 2013. At the height of all of this is hype is a Tony Award win.

Durang’s play about a dysfunctional family walked off with the Tony Award for Best Play beating out “The Assembled Parties,” “Lucky Guy” and “The Testament of Mary” at the 67th Tony Awards at Radio City Music Hall. More good news coming out of that camp is that the play has recouped its $2.5 million investment!

Directed by Nicholas Martin, the comedy is based on characters and themes from Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, and stars Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen and David Hyde Pierce with Shalita Grant, Billy Magnussen and Liesel Allen-Yeager. The non-stop, laugh out loud engagement takes place in Pennsylvania at the countryside where the laughs are supersized.

Weaver, whose final performance will take place on July 28 when she will be replaced by Julie White, is a successful movie star who pays a visit to her family and brings along her boy toy. What unfolds is a persistent problem the siblings have about growing old gracefully. Adding to the unbridled hilarity is Grant who plays the misguided psychic maid Cassandra which she plays to infinite perfection.

Broadway critics also felt that Grant had nailed her role and she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play. And although the Tony eluded her this time around, this will be just the first of many nominations to come because she has that “it” thing that theatergoers love. Grant did however receive Theatre World Award for Best Debut Performance.

Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike’s creative team features David Korins (scenic design), Emily Rebholz (costume design), Justin Townsend (lighting design) and Mark Bennett (original music and sound design).

In addition to the Tony Award win, the play has won Best Play awards from the New York Drama Critics’ Circle, the Drama Desk, the Drama League and the Outer Critics Circle.

*Tony Award winner Richard Greenberg‘s new play The Assembled Parties, directed by MTC’s award winning Artistic Director Lynne Meadowwhich opened on Wednesday, April 17, 2013 for a limited engagement has extended its run at Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (261 West 47th Street, NYC) for the third time to Sunday, July 28, 2013 because of a renewed box office rush resulting from Judith Light’s Tony Award win for Featured Actress in a Play for her critically acclaimed portrayal of “Faye” in MTC’s presentation of The Assembled Parties also starring Jessica Hecht, Jeremy Shamos, Mark Blum, Lauren Blumenfeld, Alex Dreier, Jake Silbermann and Jonathan Walker.

The Assembled Parties finds us at the sprawling Central Park West apartment of former movie star Julie Bascov (Hecht) and her sister-in-law Faye (Light) and at a traditional holiday dinner attended by both of their families. The dinner is interrupted by a house guest (Shamos) who wheedles himself into the family dynamics. Fast forward some twenty years later, the family is fighting for survival and trying to fit in. You can just imagine the side-splitting laughs and the nuances of Jewish humor. You don’t have to be Jewish to enjoy this well staged production, but it helps!

*The critically acclaimed revival of Horton Foote’s American masterpiece, The Trip To Bountiful, has been extended again, adding five weeks to its already extended engagement, and will now play through Wednesday, October 9,2013 giving audiences just a few more chances to see celebrated actress Cicely Tyson in her Tony Award-winning performance of a lifetime.

The legendary thespian, who has been praised with an Academy Award nomination for Sounder and won two Emmy Awards for her iconic portrayal in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, has returned to Broadway for the first time in over 30 years in The Trip To Bountiful. Taking the stage by storm, Tyson has received every major theatre award of the season for her performance as Mother Carrie Watts, a role that rivals any iconic character she has ever performed. Tyson’s Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award – winning performance is one not to be missed.

The inspiring American classic, The Trip To Bountiful, tells the story of Carrie Watts, an elderly woman forced to live with her overprotective son and domineering daughter-in-law, who dreams of returning to her small hometown of Bountiful, TX one last time. Her journey becomes a heartbreaking but ultimately life-affirming and inspiring tale that examines the fragility of memory and celebrates the enduring power of hope and faith.
Directed by Michael Wilson, The Trip To Bountiful is playing at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre (124 W 43rd St) on the following schedule: Tuesday – Thursday at 7pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm, Sunday at 3pm. Starting the week of August 20, 2013 the schedule will change to: Tuesday and Thursday at 7pm, Friday and Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm and Sunday at 3pm. Tickets are available at the box office, www.Telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200.

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